Friday, 27 December 2013

A tentative entry into the Blogosphere

As the end of 2013 approaches, I'm doing the usual
stock-take of both professional and personal "to do" lists, and
giving myself the inevitable appraisal that some things are about where I want / had
hoped them to be, one or two are maybe slightly ahead of the target and several
could "do better" in 2014. However one thing that will remain notable
for me about 2013, is the extent to which I have upped my use of social media
for professional purposes. I guess I had been in the contemplative stage of
Prochaska and DiClemente " Stages of Change" model for some time, but
was encouraged and motivated by Dorothy Bishop’s 2011 blog post “A gentle introduction to Twitter for the apprehensive academic”
and so decided to actually start using
the Twitter account I had set up some 12 or 18 months earlier.

Yes, Twitter can
be yet another form of procrastination, however it has also:

strengthened existing academic connections,

introduced me to “new” academic colleagues whose
work is cognate to mine,

exposed me to new academic articles and opinion
pieces that (a) I would not have otherwise seen and (b) have been of material
value to me in my work (i.e. not just of passing but forgettable interest),

somewhat alleviated the tyranny of distance for
me as a “Down Under” academic, and

provided momentary light relief and amusement.

So – Twitter and I are a a bit of an item, and hang out together, at
least for brief periods, on most days.

I’ve (mostly) got my head around hashtags and shrinking URLs,
and almost enjoy the challenge of brevity….and believe me, for someone who
LOVES words, 140 characters can be a challenge. However it’s not always
possible to do justice to one’s thoughts and the shades of grey (a term I use
with some reservation these days) that exist in one’s thinking around important
academic debates, and that’s why I have taken to the Blogosphere, in the hope
that I can expand my ideas a little further, and have them further expanded and
challenged by those who share my interests.

Amongst other things, I plan to blog on:

early language acquisition and social (dis)advantage

making the transition to literacy in the first
three years of school

challenges in applying evidence in the early
years classroom

the linguistic challenges encountered by
marginalised young people and how these might be overcome

restorative justice conferencing and hidden
communication impairment

the need for speech-language pathology to shift
from a purely clinical to a public health (population-based) focus

No comments:

Post a Comment

A blog on child and adolescent language, language competence and social disadvantage, early literacy instruction, youth offending, communication skills and the student doctor....and a few other bits and pieces.

Search This Blog

Follow by Email

About Me

I'm a Professor and Head of the La Trobe Rural Health School and live and work in Bendigo, central Victoria. My research passion is language and literacy competence - primarily as this pertains to vulnerability in early life.
Views expressed on this blog are my own.
I have recently published a book (released by J&R Publishing in March 2017) with Dr Caroline Bowen:
Making Sense of Interventions for Children with Developmental Disorders. A Guide for Parents and Professionals.
http://www.jr-press.co.uk/making-sense-of-interventions-for-childrens-developmental-disorders.html
Australian orders can be placed at:
http://www.sandpiperpublications.com.au/Making-Sense-of-Interventions-scp100568.html